This "true color" Chandra image of N132D shows the
beautiful, complex remnant of an explosion of a massive
star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy
about 160,000 light years from Earth. The colors
represent different ranges of X-rays, with red, green,
and blue representing, low, medium, and higher X-ray
energies respectively.

Supernova remnants comprise debris of a stellar
explosion and any matter in the vicinity that is
affected by the expanding debris. In the case of N132D,
the horseshoe shape of the remnant is thought to be due
to shock waves from the collision of the supernova
ejecta with cool giant gas clouds. As the shock waves
move through the gas they heat it to millions of
degrees, producing the glowing X-ray shell.